In 2014, Brisbane International second seed Ana Ivanovic lifted the most silverware of any of her 12 years on tour.
The 27-year-old claimed a career-best four season titles at Auckland, Monterrey, Birmingham and Tokyo to finish the season in the top five for the first time since 2008 – the year she tasted grand slam success on the French clay.
Ivanovic said her tennis-life balance had found the perfect equilibrium over the past 12 months, fuelling her desire for more of the same.
“It felt like it was really hard work in the past years and I never had the results I wanted,” she said.
“So I really started to enjoy everything again – my life and travelling and being on tour.
“That made a big difference, because it made me more relaxed and made me enjoy competition.”
Ivanovic started her 2014 campaign by winning in New Zealand and backing it up with a quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open, which featured a watershed fourth-round victory over American juggernaut Serena Williams – a career first after four previous attempts.
From August onwards, she netted seven wins over top 10 players with the highlights being a three-set victory over Maria Sharapova en route to the Cincinnati final.
Ivanovic didn’t drop a set on her way to winning Toyko in September, overcoming former world No.1s Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki.
Although the four calendar-year titles resulted in a ranking upsurge, the burning desire to add another grand slam title to her solitary piece of silverware from Roland Garros remains.
And she’s made the decision to wind back her schedule to try and make it happen.
“That’s my main focus for this season is to probably play less but focus on the big events and hopefully go far,” she said.
“It’s something that takes time, and last year I was really more consistent.
“I love competition and I love challenges and I really feel I can move high in the big events and take out another grand slam title.”
Ivanovic finished the year with a stint in the Indian Premier League Tennis tournament and although it added an extra few frequent flyer points to an already overflowing tally, it proved a refreshing change from bashing it out on the singles tour.
“I enjoyed the team spirit and that’s something you don’t experience much in individual sport,” she said.
“I got to see countries I’ve never seen before, the Taj Mahal was an amazing experience.
“But it was tiring … after a whole year of travelling.
“When I looked back I really enjoyed it (even though) it took me some time to recover.”
The Serb begins her Brisbane International campaign against Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova on Wednesday night, with a 2-nil head-to-head advantage in her favour courtesy of a brace of wins in Japan in 2004.